scavenger hunt: miss matatabi

It’s the second day of giveaway week and we have another scavenger hunt for you! Complete this scavenger hunt and you could win a ridiculous amount of fabric from Miss Matatabi.

Now unless you have never been to the fabric obsessed corner of the internet, then you will surely know of Miss Matatabi. Frances runs this amazing shop from her studio in Japan. She has curated a gorgeous collection of Japanese prints from Kokka, Yoshiko Jinzenji, kobayashi, and more. Plus she carries fabric collections by everyone’s favorite design collective, Cotton + Steel. But Miss Matatabi is known far and wide as the queen of Nani Iro.

When you see a Nani Iro print for the first time, you can’t help but fall hard for it. The designs range from feminine to simple to abstract, but using any of these words to describe them would take away from their complex beauty. Painterly would be the most fitting word I think, if it is a word. Nani Iro fabrics are simply gorgeous and worth every penny.

But since we all know and love nani iro, I thought I’d write about some of the hidden gems in Frances’ shop. Wandering around the shop and thinking about our theme this season (DISGUISE), I kept finding prints that seemed to be other prints in disguise. You know when your friend wears a new top with a fabulous print and you say, “Wow that is a fabulous new top!” Then you look closer and see that the print is even more fantastic than you first realized. Then you grill her about where she got it, because it is extra fabulous and you need one too.

That is a print disguised as another print–from afar it looks like one print, but up close it becomes obvious it is another. Two prints for the price of one! And the perfect way to work the theme into your sewing this season. I’ve discovered three kinds of prints like this:

1. double take DISGUISE

These are prints that cause people to do a double take. What looks like a pretty doily print, becomes a lacy spiderweb on closer inspection. And what could just be a simple geometric design, causes a bit of whiplash when people suddenly see what it really is: “Whoa! wait a minute! Is that a bowling score sheet?! How cool!”

2. pattern overload DISGUISE

These prints make your eyes go a little crazy. It’s pattern overload! These designers packed their print full of a few simple images to create a bold graphic pattern. Once your eyes adjust you realize, “Oh that’s a tangle of patterned cats!” or “That’s not a checkerboard, it’s hundreds of pandas!”

3. teeny tiny DISGUISE

This is everyone’s favorite. Even if you won’t admit to loving tiny things, there is a little voice in your head that says, “squee!” every time you see them. I mean come on! What looks like simple polka dots, becomes, “squee! tiny raindrops!” Or if you look a little closer, suddenly tiny people appear playing guitar, walking hand in hand, and “Wait, is that guy doing squats?!”

So what do you think? You do have any fabrics where one print is hiding in another print? Maybe you need some of these beautiful examples. All of these amazing fabrics are available at the Miss Matatabi etsy store.